Kyla’s Birth Story And Days Thereafter

This is part 2 of the letter that I started writing to Kyla…

You were due to arrive on 12 July 2009, but you decided that you preferred it in there and you were not coming out.  We spoke to Dr Dumbrill who said that we would do an induction on the 20th at 12am, so you would be born by 21 July – natural or otherwise.  On 13 July 2009, I was at home waiting for you to arrive (I had been on maternity leave for about 2 weeks) and I started to get weird cramps in my stomach from about 3pm in the afternoon.  I didn’t think much of it as they were roughly an hour or two apart.  At about 11pm the cramps were still going strong, but I couldn’t feel you moving anymore.  This was a huge concern for us as you moved all the time, so we rushed off to Vincent Pallotti.  As I was set up to the machine to monitor your heart beat, you started moving – typical ;).  But the drive there was not for nothing, they confirmed that I was indeed having contractions, but it would be a while before you arrived.  We were told to go home and only come back when the contractions were 3 in 10 minutes and when they lasted more than 40 seconds at a time.

I could not sleep at all the whole night, partly because I was so excited that I would be meeting you in person so soon, and partly because the cramps were pretty flipping sore.  By 5am o’clock I couldn’t take it anymore and woke Dad up (who had been sleeping peacefully all night) to go over to Nana’s for a bath (at that stage we didn’t have a bath in our house).  By roughly 7am the contractions had started coming 3 in 10 minutes and lasting more than 40 seconds.  I was in full blown labour – finally.  We went through to the hospital and we were assigned to our room.  I struggle through some really hectic contractions until about 10am.  No one can really prepare you for the pain of a contraction, it is everywhere, all over my stomach, back and hips.  Intense. We managed to get the Anaesthetist in at 10, and in-between major heavy contractions he managed to stick a massive needle into my spine to numb me from my chest down (Epidural).  After that it was great – I could see the chart next to me showing the hectic contractions that I was having that almost went OFF the chart, but I couldn’t feel it!!  Amazing!!!  I was so numb that I couldn’t feel my legs – or move them.  At one stage I could feel the contractions in the space of a golf ball on the left side of my tummy – weird, but they fixed it in a second. Before this I was convinced that I would go “all natural”, maybe use the gas – but only if I was desperate.  What a load!  It was so worth getting the epidural, as you only arrived in the evening.  We spent most of the day sleeping (as I didn’t sleep much the night before).  Besides the Doctors/Nurses coming to check how far I was, all we did was chill.

At 6pm the Doctor (who was not the Gyne that I had been going to for the scans – Dr Dumbrill was away on holiday – typical) came in and said that we were finally ready to push.  They turned the Epidural juices down a bit so that I could feel the contractions enough to know when to push.  The Doctor and the Nurse stood on each side of the bed and then propped each of my legs on their hips – AWKWARD!  Anyway, after a bit of pushing, well a lot of pushing, you were brought into this world.  It was the most special moment in my life so far.  You didn’t cry until they turned you onto your stomach, then they wrapped you in lovely warm towels and placed you on my chest.  You were so awake for just being born – wide eyes staring at your Dad and I.  You were born at 6.30pm at a massive 3.13kg and 49cm (we were expecting you to be really tiny).  At 7pm it was visiting time, so they took you away and cleaned you up while they cleaned me up – I tore quite badly and lost a lot of blood.  They wheeled me into our room and then they brought you in while everyone was congregated in there.  I didn’t let you out of my arms that evening, nevermind out of my sight!  Once everyone was gone and it was just Dad and I left in the room, I just held you – stared at your beautiful (slightly swollen) face and cried at how amazing you are.

The few days that we spent in hospital were hectic.  You would not latch for more than a minute correctly – we tried everything.  By the end of the stay we were both tired and you were hungry.  When we got home we tried the formula and you were A for away.  We tried a couple of times to breast feed again – but eventually my nipples were just bleeding.  We ended up expressing milk and topping up with formula.  It worked well and you ate like a beast – that made us all happy!

Dad stayed home with us for the first two weeks – it was great.  We took you to your first trip out to Cavendish at 7 days old.  We needed to get some more clothes for you cos you were just too little to fit into the ones we had.  After Dad went back to work Nana stayed home with us for another week – she was a big help to both of us.

It was very cold when you were born so you were always covered in blankets and snugly with me in nice warm outfits.  We always had the heater on – we couldn’t function without it.  Now you are the hottest child I know, just wearing socks in slightly hot weather makes you sweat .

Many things happened in the time that I was on maternity leave, there are a few moments that really stand out.  I think you were about 6 weeks old, and you were sleeping in your moses cot on the couch, then all of a sudden I heard a noise that I hadn’t ever heard you make before.  When I went to check you, you had projectile vomited all the way to the side of the cot.  For your size the amount and the distance was quite impressive (not that I thought that at the time – I was so scared that you were ill).  You were absolutely fine, but just had to bring up a wind.

This was such an amazing time to spend with you – my oldest child.  I love you Kyla-La-La.